Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- An Indian judge sentenced four men
to death for the fatal gang rape of a student aboard a moving
bus in New Delhi in an attack that triggered global outrage.

The announcement, which came three days after the specially
convened fast-track court in the nation’s capital found the
defendants guilty of murder, rape and kidnapping, was met with a
roar of cheers inside and outside the courtroom. The victim’s
parents said justice has been done.

Death sentences are restricted for crimes considered the
“rarest of the rare” in India and can be delayed for years by
appeals all the way up to the Supreme Court or a clemency
petition to the president. India has only executed three people
in the last nine years, two Islamic militants and a man who was
convicted of raping and murdering a 14-year-old even as more
than 450 are on death row.

“This case definitely falls in the rarest of rare
categories and warrants the exemplary punishment of death,”
Judge Yogesh Khanna said as one of the defendants burst out in
tears as the sentence was announced yesterday. The attack
“shocked the collective conscience of India,” he said.

About 200 protesters, gathered outside the court chanting
“hang them, hang them, hang them” after the sentence was
handed down. Some of them were carrying placards saying “She
Won” and “Hang all rapists,” while an artist painted a
picture of the four men being led down to the gallows.

No Right

“They are demons, they have no right to be part of this
society,” said Alam, who uses only one name.

The attack on the medical student in December spurred weeks
of nationwide protests, triggered an unprecedented debate about
sexual violence in the world’s largest democracy and prompted
the government to impose stricter punishments. Tougher laws have
failed to deter criminals even as a photographer at a magazine
in Mumbai and a female police constable in the eastern state of
Jharkhand were gang raped last month.

All the defendants were teary eyed as they entered the
cramped court room. Vinay Sharma, a former gym assistant, broke
down and wailed when the sentence was announced.

With crimes against women on the rise, the courts cannot
turn a “blind eye toward such gruesome crime,” Judge Khanna
told the defendants. When he pronounced his order, one of the
defense lawyers A.P. Singh shouted “this is not the victory of
truth. It is the defeat of justice.”

Deliberate Act

The judge declared that the men had deliberately tried to
kill the 23-year-old by repeatedly violating her with an iron
rod and attempting to run her over when they threw her naked and
bleeding out of a bus with her male friend.

The sentence is likely to satisfy some lawmakers and
protesters who took to the streets in the aftermath of the
attack saying executions were necessary to put an end to rapes.

A day after the guilty verdict, Public Prosecutor Dayan
Krishnan said all the men should be given the death penalty
because it will send out a message that such crime won’t be
tolerated. The attack met “the rarest of rare” criteria
because it shocked the conscience of the nation, he said.

“This is an extreme case of depravity,” Krishnan said.
“The common man will lose faith in the judiciary if the
harshest punishment is not given.”

Lawyers for the convicted men argued in court that
sentencing them to hang won’t reduce crime and would simply be
an act of vengeance.

Swift Justice

Breaking with precedent, the trial was held on a daily
basis once it began eight months ago, bowing to demands for
swift justice. In India, the average length of a criminal case
is 15 years, according to the Ministry of Law and Justice.

The physiotherapy student, whose name can’t be published
under laws protecting the identity of rape victims, was
returning home from the cinema with a male friend when six
drunken men, including a teenager, attacked them on a bus and
then took turns to rape her.

After the brutal two-hour assault, the woman and her
companion were dumped beside a road near New Delhi’s airport.
The couple was then ignored by passersby, while police argued
over where to take them as they lay bleeding on the street,
according to the woman’s friend. She died two weeks later from
her injuries.

The victim’s family criticized the verdict of an Indian
juvenile court last month after it sentenced the teenager, who
was under the age of 18 at the time of the attack, to three
years in a reform home for his role in the assault and murder.
That is the maximum sentence that can be given to a juvenile
under Indian law.

A sixth defendant and the alleged ring leader committed
suicide in March in his cell, according to prison authorities.
His family and lawyer said he was murdered and had previously
been attacked by other inmates.